The Thanh Hoa Bridge, spanning the Song Ma river, is situated 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Thanh Hoa, the capital of Thanh Hoa province in Vietnam. The Vietnamese gave it the nickname Ham Rong or 'Dragon's jaw'. In 1965 during the Vietnam war, it was the objective of many attacks by US Air Force and US Navy aircraft which would fail to destroy the bridge until 1972. In their first air combat, a small force of seemingly mismatched MiG-17s inflicted significant losses on much larger and more advanced American F-105 Thunderchief and F-8 Crusader fighters at a cost of 3 of their own. 873 air sorties were expended against the bridge and it was hit by hundreds of bombs and missiles before being finally destroyed. It became something of a symbol of resistance for the North Vietnamese, and various legends of invincibility were attached to it. Eventually, in 1972, the bridge was destroyed by A-7 Corsair bombers using laser-guided bombs and conventional bombs. It was rebuilt by Vietnamese sappers and then destroyed again during Operation Linebacker I. Today it functions normally as a major link on Vietnam's key Highway 1 linking Hanoi and Saigon.